The Inevitable Bloomberg

[rusty charly]

"The combination of Mr. Bloomberg’s low opinion of the press, short fuse, and near-hysterical resistance to suggestions of political calculation actually calls to mind a politician of considerably humbler financial means: Bill Clinton.

http://www.politickerny.com/3819/extraordinary-indignation-michael-bloomberg

The former president, like the mayor, couldn’t (and probably still can’t) help exploding at reporters who violated his precisely defined sensibilities. In fact, the scene at the mayor’s Queens press conference last week looked and sounded jarringly similar to the scene in the Rose Garden back in June 1993, when Mr. Clinton suffered the most memorable public meltdown of his presidency.

The occasion was Mr. Clinton’s announcement of his decision to nominate Ruth Bader Ginsburg for the Supreme Court. The process had been long and messy, with the White House twice leaking to the press the names of Mr. Clinton’s supposed choice—first Bruce Babbitt and then Stephen Breyer—only to pull back when those potential nominees were met with resistance. Just weeks earlier, Lani Guinier had been similarly hung out to dry when Mr. Clinton reneged on his selection of her to head the civil rights division of the Justice Department.

It was against this backdrop that Brit Hume, then ABC News’ White House correspondent, rose to ask Mr. Clinton the first question after Ms. Ginsburg delivered a rather poignant personal statement. The unwieldy selection process, Mr. Hume told the president, had created “an impression, perhaps unfair, of a certain zigzag quality in the decision-making process here. I wonder, sir, if you could kind of walk us through it and perhaps disabuse us of any notion that we might have along those lines.”

His voice full of anger, Clinton replied: “I have long since given up the thought that I could disabuse some of you turning any substantive decision into anything but political process. How you could ask a question like that after the statement just made is beyond me.” Then his aides and a few cabinet officials applauded."